Network systems such as the Internet provide users with access to large amounts of information. In order to allow network users to find and organize information on network systems that is relevant to specific subject matter topics, various techniques have been developed. One such technique involves the use of “tags” and network-based tag services.
A tag may be a word, a group of words, or a group of alphanumeric characters that may be assigned by a user to one or more objects (e.g., files, documents, web pages, items displayed via a network-based retail store, digital photographs, bookmarks, etc., or parts or components thereof). Tags are typically used to classify objects and search for objects. Often, though, tags are essentially passive in nature and may not provide any additional functionality beyond their usage in categorizing, searching for, etc., the objects to which the tags have been assigned.
Services for providing passive tags may be used in a variety of environments. For example, a passive tag service may be used as a part of a network-based retail operation, providing shoppers with the ability to tag specific objects such as items available for sale, web pages, etc. with a passive, textual descriptor. A passive tag service may also be used in conjunction with, for example, a database of newspaper articles so as to provide users with the ability to tag articles. The objects being tagged may be provided by the network system, or by users of the network system, or by another entity. The textual descriptor may then be used by the passive tag service, e.g., to classify the object to which the tag is assigned. Typically, the passive tags to be assigned to the object or objects are chosen by users of the network system.
Passive tags may be public or private in nature. If public, passive tags assigned by a user to an object may be viewed by other users within a user community. The community aspect of tags may allow a user to benefit from the tagging activities of others. However, because passive tags are merely used to further describe or identify an object of interest to the user who created the tag, the usefulness of passive tags is limited.